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NEW YORK (AP) — Now playing: Movies at Walmart.com.
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The world’s largest retailer on Tuesday started streaming many
movies the same day they come out on DVD, in a second bid for a
share of popular movie rental and streaming website Netflix Inc.’s
business and just two weeks after Netflix announced new price
increases.
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Wal-Mart Stores Inc. bought video-streaming service Vudu.com 18
months ago and now offers 20,000 titles that can be viewed on
almost any device with Internet access, from computers to
televisions to Sony’s PlayStation3 and other Blu-Ray disc
players.
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Movies are available at Walmart.com to rent for $1 to $5.99 or to
purchase for $4.99 and up. Wal-Mart is not offering subscriptions,
making its service more similar to Apple Inc.’s iTunes, which
charges $3.99 to rent newly released movies and $14.99 to buy a
movie.
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In addition to Netflix, another competitor streaming movies and TV
shows by subscription is Hulu.com, which now offers a premium
service for $7.99 a month with more back-season shows and more
movies. Without a subscription, Hulu viewers can watch shows and
movies free in exchange for watching advertising.
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The movie offering fits with the Wal-Mart website’s strategy of
offering a “seamless continuous shopping service,” said Steve Nave,
senior vice president and general manager of
Walmart.com.
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Wal-Mart’s announcement comes on the heels of Netflix saying it
will raise rates and charge separately for streaming and rental
DVDs. Its second price hike in eight months, Netflix’s planned
increases could amount to 60 percent for existing customers,
starting Sept. 1. New subscribers have to pay the new prices
immediately.
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Netflix plans to charge $16 a month for services that used to cost
$10 a month when bundled together, for example. It’s still changing
$8 a month for streaming, which it launched late last year. But
instead of charging $2 more for a plan that includes one DVD at a
time by mail, the company will charge $8 and up for DVD
plans.
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Customers have taken to social media sites Facebook and Twitter to
vent their anger over Netflix’s increases, but executives said they
anticipated the reaction. The company’s willingness to risk
alienating subscribers signals it needs more revenue to cover
rising costs.
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As of March, Netflix had 22.8 million subscribers in the U.S. –
about 34,000 more than the number of households subscribing to
Comcast Corp.’s cable-TV service.
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Wal-Mart, based in Bentonville, Ark., has tested the movie-rental
waters before. It previously offered a DVD-by-mail service that
cost $12.97 per month for two titles and $17.36 per month for three
titles. But it ceded that program to Netflix in February 2010,
letting customers continue their subscriptions with Los Gatos,
Calif.-based Netflix without a rate hike. Apple is based in
Cupertino, Calif.
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